Accessing Bloomberg, Cap IQ & WRDS

Compustat North America is a product of S&P Capital IQ. 

1. It is a fundamental database that contains data items collected from companies’ balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, and other findings. 

2. Draws data from companies’ SEC filings such as 10-K for annual filings and 10-Q for quarterly filings. 

• Reports data items on an Annual and Quarterly basis. 

3. Covers both Industry and Financial companies:  

• Standardized to allow for better comparison across industries.  

(Standardizes various data items for easy comparison of companies across industries) 

4. Carries companies that are both active and delisted. 

• Survivor bias-free (this is crucial for academic research as it avoids survivorship bias). 

1. Covers both the US and Canada
2. There are over 80,000 active and inactive public companies, covering major index constituents such as S&P and Russell Index Family.
3. The data comes in two update frequencies

• Fundamental Annual Database – FUNDA, based on the company’s 10-K findings.
• Fundamental Quarterly Database – FUBDQ, based on the company’s 10-Q findings.

4. Compustat security data also carries pricing data as an alternative to CRSP.
5. Compustat Index Constituents data carries major historical components such as S&P500 Index Family.